Graphics

I realize this is more of failing with excel and not Xpression/Datalinq, but we have a master spreadsheet with sports data in it, teams, matchups, the usual.

Our production assistant fills in most of the data; operators may fill in certain fields that have, for example, the name of image files, and the file is linked to 3 separate Xpression boxes.

The sheet is shared, of course, but there are constantly issues (errors) with Datalinq because someone's got the spreadsheet open.  I've found that, usually, if the workbook doesn't have unsaved changes, Datalinq is happy - but even that doesn't always seem to be the case.

Microsoft now recommends using OneDrive for sharing, and I've tested this feature out - it's pretty cool, as you can enter data on one and see it "magically" show up in the other; autosave is on, so there's never pending changes.  However, Datalinq is even worse using this method of sharing, as it won't connect at all if someone's got it opened in excel.

So the question is: what are people doing for this kind of scenario?  A "real" database for a backend wouldn't have these problems, but then it's awkward for the PA to update.

Google sheets would seem like a good idea if there was some sort of oledb driver for it, but the only one I can find is $hundreds/year.  You can create a link that will send the entire workbook as a JSON or XML (or even HTML, which is useless), but as an RSS feed, it tries to download the entire workbook, which is a LOT of data, so it's not practical for any large set of data (in our case, every team has a sheet with all the players and all of their data - it's too large to repeatedly download the whole thing).

Are you sharing spreadsheets and NOT having problems?  Have you found work-arounds?  Other ways of storing data?

Open to suggestions.

Hello Frederick,

How did you solve this problem?

Greeting Harm

Nope.  We just have to make sure everything is saved, and occasionally the PA needs to close the workbook.

Hi Frederick, 

Is the workbook saved as .xls or .xslx?  In DataLinq, are you using the ADODB DataLinq source or the Excel source?  Ideally you'd have an .xls workbook connected to DataLinq via the ADODB option. 

Also, I know you said it's shared but do you know if it's the legacy method of sharing?

https://www.presentationpoint.com/blog/multiple-users-excel-2016-datasheet/

I'm happy to look at the Excel sheet on my end and see if I can help out. 

Best,

Taylor

We've tried both, and we've tried both new and old style sharing, tried sharing on OneDrive, and it's not the sheet - this happens all the time.  I believe it has more to do with how Excel/Windows is doing sharing.

Hi,

In Excel, have you activated the function to say that several people are using the file simultaneously?

I also use Excel to automatically sort Athletes based on their grades.

But I have to use XLSX files because the "sort by" function does not work in XLS.

I have activated the function in Excel to say that there are several simultaneous users for this file. But despite this, I sometimes have problems sharing the file.
There are error messages on Excel that "problem someone else is using the file, and I have to restart Excel. So I tell myself that Datalink must have the same problem, even if these errors are not reported to me. I deduce this because I see bugs on Xpression.
They are rare but it is already too many during a live.

That's why I'm searching here, to see if anyone has solved this problem and I see your post. I think since 2019 you have found a solution but I'm writing this here if it can be useful for other people.